The ability to search, organize and discover research materials is essential for researchers, but can be a time-consuming and daunting task with the vast amount of information that is available in different locations. For example, for any given project, researchers may periodically run independent searches for new papers, for example, from separate labs and/or may scan tables of contents for different journals, where each journal resides in a separate location. This is not only a time consuming process, but the results of these searches may not be easy to search and organize given the large volume of research materials that may be located in each of the different locations. For example, the PDF files of many papers of interest may not be accessible to researchers because a subscription may be required, which, for example, may only be accessible on a particular stand alone computer at a researcher's office. Having separate subscription services for different libraries makes the management of papers of interest an extremely arduous task.
In addition, the static nature of the published materials, the strict nature of the publication and/or length limits makes it impossible to modify, annotate or share additional information relating to the published materials. For example, there may be corrections, additions or optimizations of the published materials that also exist in separate and different locations.
Moreover, it is not uncommon for an individual engaged in research to encounter questions relating to topics that are best answered by a scientific advisor or mentor. However, it is often difficult to obtain an advisor or mentor who is willing and able to answer the individual's specific questions. In addition, individuals asking questions may not want their identity to be known.
While some attempts have been made in the industry to create a research library organization tool, none successfully provide users with a centralized resource for article discovery, management, and author-annotation and communication. In addition, none of these research library organization tools provide users with access to readily available scientific advisors or mentors.
For example, Mendeley (mendeley.com, owned by Elsevier publisher) is a reference management website for researchers. Mendeley has an iOS application that is synchronized with Mendeley's online database, a social network component with shared user libraries, and a recommendation engine based on a user library. However, Mendeley's iOS application does not offer an Android application. Further, Mendeley does not offer a research publication database that can collect research publications from third party sources, nor does it provide users with the ability to search external databases. Instead, the only articles available on Mendeley are those uploaded by users directly to the Mendeley database. Hence, Mendeley falls short of serving as a comprehensive research database. Also, Mendeley cannot function as a central article-annotation and author-communication platform.
As another example, Papers (developed by Mekentosj, owned by Springer publisher) is a standalone reference manager for the PC, Mac, and iOS devices. Papers allows a user to synchronize his or her library between an iOS device and a personal computer. Papers also enables a user to search external databases. However, Papers does not offer an Android application, nor does it operate on a website. Rather, users of Papers can only store articles on their devices locally. Thus, because Papers does not offer an online library system, the Papers application cannot enable communication among users' libraries, nor can it support an online communication platform for commentary relating to the articles.
As yet another example, Readcube (readcube.com, part of Digital Science, a division of Macmillan Publishers/Nature Publishing Group) is a standalone reference manager for the PC and Mac. It provides library-based user recommendations and allows users to search external databases. However, Readcube does not offer an Android application, an iOS application, or a website. Thus, not only does Readcube fail to enable communication among users' libraries or support an online communication platform, Readcube users are unable to synchronize their user libraries between devices.
In addition to development of research library organization tools, attempts have been made at providing question and answer forums for those individuals looking for a virtual space to obtain quick responses. For example, Twitter provides a crowd-sourced advice outlet for users to reach out to specific individuals. However, on Twitter a new user does not have followers and questions are invisible. Twitter users do not have a means of searching previously posted questions and answers. In addition, Twitter lacks anonymity, and questions and answers are constrained to 140 characters.
Another example of a virtual question and answer forum for scientists is ResearchGate (hereafter “RG”). RG provides a social networking platform for scientists, however, like Twitter, it lacks anonymity. In addition, while RG provides a means for users to identify the “best” answers, RG does not control who answers each question. That is, there is no way of knowing whether answers are coming from trusted scientific advisors or mentors.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved research library organization tool that allow researchers to search, organize, modify, discuss and discover research publications, while providing a forum for researchers obtain valuable knowledge from scientific advisors and/or mentors.